25 Booster Club Fundraising Ideas

Booster Club Fundraising is a popular way to gain much needed funds for your school sports teams. Taking a few steps beyond booster club fundraising 101, let’s expand on the fundraising ideas and plethora of options to raise money for your school’s booster club. Here are 25 great booster club fundraising ideas that you may discuss with your club and take to new heights.

Host a Booster Club Event or Tournament

Sporting events and tournaments can be fun booster club fundraising ideas. They generally raise money successfully (after all, you know that your audience are sports fans) but involve a bit more planning to execute from start to finish. The greatest aspects that require planning for this type of fundraiser are often the event logistics themselves, and sponsorship acquisition to make participation more appealing.

Sports Events

1. Golf Tournaments

Golf tournaments can be a lot easier to set-up than other tournaments, where the sweat work really is in recruiting golfers to get on board to play. The amount raised from a golf event can be amplified greatly by getting tournament sponsors on board. In addition to managing the golf tournament, keep in mind that inventory can be an extra point of income when selling t-shirts, mulligans, caps and other accessories, which can all be easily managed with great golf tournament software.

2. Bocci Tournaments

A bocci tournament is a great fundraising idea for booster club fundraising, bringing in net proceeds that may surprise you. If your school can offer the space for the tournament and you can figure out ways to rent the bocci balls, you’ll be coming in at minimal costs. Event management software allows you to register players, promote sponsors and take the tournament to a higher level of professionalism.

3. Basketball Tournaments

Basketball tournaments can be fun and familiar fundraising events to host that can be done with three to a team and double elimination to manage the time. You can get a helping hand from your school’s basketball coach with the tournament logistics and referee assistance. Here are some extra fundraising tips to help successfully organize your event.

A-thons are great events, as you turn your students into fundraisers for your club. With peer-to-peer software and a long open road to handle a 5K or 10K, it’s hard to hit a limit of attendees or donors. The only snag is that it can require more logistics and volunteers than prior events. Thus you’ll need someone to be at challenging turns of the run to direct the participants, you´ll need a little equipment to allow spectators to partake from a roped area along the road. Also consider if you’ll need to apply for permits with your city or town to host a crowdfunding event if it’s outside of school premises, as well as potential costs of event insurance.

Fun Competitions

5. Karaoke Competition

This can be a fun and versatile event for booster club fundraising, in that you can split the competition by music genre and other themes. Get some mics, have a projector in your school auditorium or gym and let your community sing their hearts out for a good cause and raise money.

6. Dance Competition

Why let the students in school fundraising be the only ones that have fun with school dances and proms? If there are dance schools in the area or notable instructors, you can even upgrade this fundraising event to be a formal dinner and organize something similar to “Dancing with the Community Stars,” which can increase the event proceeds to $10,000 or more.

7. Bingo

The good ol’ bingo game is an easy and classic way of raising funds. Bingo cards can also be creatively customized to your event and sponsors. Make it a bigger affair with food, drinks, and raffle tickets ready to purchase in this fun booster club fundraising game.

8. Battles of the Band/Cover Band Concert/Lip Sync Battle

This is something that is genuinely fun to watch and creates memories to be spoken of for months if not years to come. Gather your students, teachers and parents to perform oldies but goodies or bring a bit of competition to the stage and have battles of the band or lip sync battles. Battles of the band must be given consideration for set-up of the instruments and rehearsing with sound checks of much equipment, whereas lip sync battles may involve organization of stage props and decoration. The donations come from ticket and refreshment sales. The fun of this makes it one of the best school fundraisers.

Just for Fun Events for Your Booster Club Fundraisers

9. Paint Night

Paint nights offer a chance for your art-inspired students and parents to shine. Everyone sits in front of a canvas and paints together, while one of your art teachers supervises. These events are increasing in popularity and can even be held in bars or pubs for adult only events. If your school is willing to donate some art supplies or help provide a discount for the supplies, and provide the space and the art instructor for your booster club fundraising event, a paint night can be a fun and creative event to host.

10. Movie Night

For something more lax in logistics and effort throughout the actual fundraiser itself, a movie night is a nice consideration. Sell tickets to the show and advertise in advance at all sports events. You can even get creative and allow people to set-up camp, tents and fold-out chairs under the starry night in the football field and come through the rows with concessions.

11. Comedy Show

Does your town have a funny bone for humor? Gather up some teachers, parents, community members and student comedians to host a comedy show night, which can take place in the school auditorium. Asking a professional comedian to donate their time is another option, as giving of their talent for school fundraising may be right up their alley.

12. BBQ/Tailgate Event

If you’ve got some mean grill masters in your booster club, take it to the next level and have them do their due diligence behind the grill at a tailgate/BBQ fundraiser. Although this will involve a bit of effort behind planning (consider the amount of meat, chips and drinks you must have to handle the hungry crowd before a football game), if done right, you can make over a couple of thousands of dollars with the right support, planning and promotion.

13. School Carnival

One of the more complex booster club fundraising events to host, a carnival has many aspects that can be integrated for a fun night out. Rides are more expensive, but consider something low-key such as bounce castles and trampolines to minimize the liability and the costs without loosing the fun for elementary school fundraising. Games for prizes can be easily engineered with some ingenuity (such as milk bottle and basket tosses). Here are some helpful tips on planning for such a big event.

14. Duct Tape Your Coach/Teacher/Principal to the Wall

Something that’s fun to do for some small proceeds or in conjunction with a school crowdfunding event is to charge a small fee to duct tape a coach, teacher or principal to the wall. Someone that is a student favorite will bring in the most donations, simply charge for the strips of duct tape ($1 to a few dollars), let people stick them on and hilarity is bound to ensue.

15. Scavenger Hunt

A scavenger hunt is something that many organizations do around spring or summer holidays, so why not make it into something bigger for the students, teachers and parents to participate in. Funds can be raised in the form of registration fees and upgrades to give better hunting advantages.

16. Spirit Nights at Local Businesses

Reach out to your town’s favorite hang-out spots or restaurants to host a spirit night, where any proceeds for the evening will have a percentage donated to the school. Booster club fundraising happens where your community has fun and shares stories of the day.

Booster Club Fundraising Sales

If your booster club fundraising team is working with a tight budget, one of the best booster club fundraising ideas to pursue is selling goods or services from within (instead of selling with third party companies).

17. Art Sale

If you have a strong art program or a strong creative community, consider reaching out to everyone for donated pieces for a good cause to sell auction-style or display gallery-style with admission and pieces ready to buy in this classy school fundraising campaign.

18. Car Wash

The good ol’ car wash is a frequently visited fundraising idea. On a nice summer day, you can even consider adding another idea, like the BBQ event, to satisfy the patrons appetite during their wait.

19. Snow Shoveling Service

Although this event comes with the risk for getting a cold, it definitely teaches students about a strong work ethic. This is much more of an ideal concept for fundraising with communities that have smaller yards and a climate of predictable chances of snow.

20. Bake Sale

Get your apron and cooking mitts on and let the chocolate brownie goodness begin! This can take place during school hours and requires much less organizing to achieve a smaller fundraising goal.

21. Garage Sales

Another concept to reach smaller fundraising goals, this is also fantastic way for homes to get rid of their junk to finally see the end of their garage.

Selling Something Everyone Loves

By going the path of affiliate fundraising, you just focus on selling another company’s goods or gift cards. One thing to consider when choosing booster club fundraising ideas is the profit margin and how much you have to sell to reach your fundraising goals. Here are some options with an approximate pricing and profit margin to consider.

22. Gift certificates to favorite community restaurants, book stores and theaters is something everybody likes.

Many local businesses would be glad to be included as a booster club sponsor and make an in-kind donation of gift certificates or services. Hotel stays, airfare or other transportation are very appealing to many people. Trips can be just for the weekend or a week-long getaway.

23. Team Spirit Paraphernalia

When it comes to great booster club fundraising ideas, nothing beats team spirit. Sell team paraphernalia to garner donations. These can range from selling phone covers with the team mascot, t-shirts, pennants, team colored pom-poms and more.

Once you choose the right booster club fundraising ideas for your booster club, you can also check out DoJiggy’s software services to choose the perfect fundraising software for your booster club’s needs.

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